HUMA
by MrsCuddles
Summary: Mike's death and rebirth. Post 2x13 - Pre 3x01


**3x09 got me so shocked that I had to revisit this thing I wrote before season 3 started. I'm a Pike shipper (obviously) but I seriously doubt the writers will ever give them another chance, even if to me they're endgame, like they're soulmates. Even if she did get him killed, but whatever. They just like screwing them over, don't they? Not to mention the sneak peak of tonight's episode got on my nerves, since it was all Briggs' fault and he got away with it.**

 **Anyway, I kinda tried to capture the point of no return for them. Paige's part is obviously set a few days later and she knows Mike is alive, but I used the past tense to point out why she did what she did, how she felt about Mike not being Mike anymore after his "confession". I know it's weird, but enjoy, if you can?**

 **\- xo**

* * *

Mike feels his heart shriveling in his chest. There's no oxygen in his lungs. He stubbornly entrenches his screams behind gritted teeth. The pain growls through his veins, his blood is hot, it's corroding his flesh and nerves, his breath tears up his cost and his bones turn to mud. He can die any second now, maybe he's already dead and all that suffering comes from his soul being torn apart in Hell. That must be it, because everything that he did, all the sins he committed, he wonders if there is a place for a weak crook like him in Heaven.

He'll probably die within seconds. Markham is looking at him and he's taking joy from his defeat and his losses. Mike knows what everyone thinks of him, he's always known - and Paige.

Now Mike knows what Paige thinks of him too and that's when he clenches his jaw and starts to fight. Paige used to see him as someone real, a man capable of pushing himself to and over the limit for those he loves and he destroyed that belief in one night, weeks ago.

The air is heavy, those walls reek of metal, blood and vomit.

His lashes are smeared with tears and determination, Mike can't keep his eyes open and yet he strives, he becomes pure violence, he forces them open. He must look at his tormentor, he wants to - he _needs_ to. Because that isn't Sid cutting off his breath. All he sees is Paige's eyes and her hard look that is shredding his heart, tearing it apart.

His mouth is dust, his tongue is swollen. The flames are burning in his chest and Mike is fighting.

Mike has always refused to give up and he isn't planning to start now.

 _If you run, Mike… you'll die._

Briggs was right. But it's when his eyes finally close and his body gives in that Mike stops running.

* * *

Paige stares at his face on the newspaper. He looks so pure and innocent, with a quivering smile that emerges right through the color of his printed lips.

It wouldn't have taken much for him to save his life - he only had to stop clinging to his ambitions, to let his sand castles fall apart, to sacrifice _her_ instead of all those young and helpless girls. Lina. But Mike _was_ stubborn and now he is nothing but a heap of white limbs buried six feet under. He _was_ bold, proud, arrogant and his blue eyes appear to be so overbearing on that black and white page that Paige has to close hers.

Even then her mind drifts back to their lost memories together - the warmth of his arms holding her close when she spent those few nights in his room. _They_ feel so far away now, a distant memory, another life.

Reminiscing is what she does best lately. Paige wants to look ahead and move on with her life, yet stay trapped in those memories with her spirit. When everything was fine and beautiful. Paige opens her eyes and the boy is still there on the paper - naive, stubborn, tenacious. Mike.

For a moment Paige sees him standing out on the street, beyond the window of the bar she's sitting in, sipping her usual coffee.

And then she sees the reflection of his eyes turning big and teary before fading away.

 _Why?_

* * *

Foothills of the Adirondacks.

The air is fresh among the trees, it's a beautiful day. He can smell the trees and feel the spring chill. He feels - _needs_ to get to the tree line. He starts running.

The world invited him to start over and Mike - Mike isn't weak anymore.

Before he gets there, red birds take off, he doesn't even have to count, he just knows how many there are. 47. The birds clear and he's at the tree line.

Mike isn't giving up. He finally smiles.

There's no path, but a tunnel and at the mouth of it, a grandfather clock. 10:10 is the time.

The light bursts and and the blow comes, his chest feels like exploding, the beast is out and he falls back on the bed. Mike breathes in, his eyes shoot open and the phoenix is reborn.


End file.
